The Teacher's Honesty

honesty is a crown on the head of a teacher; if it is lost people will lose their trust in his knowledge and science because most probably the student takes all what his teacher says for granted.

if a student was to discover that his teacher is lying in some matters this will be directly reflected on the teacher who will soon lose his credibility totally. honesty saves a man in this world and in the hereafter. allah (the almighty) had praised the honest and urged the believers to follow its path by saying: "o you who have believed, be pious to allah and be with the sincere." (at-tawba 119)

our first teacher (pbuh) had instructed us that sincerity leads to paradise saying "truth leads one to paradise and virtue leads one to paradise and the person tells the truth until he is recorded as truthful, and lie leads to obscenity and obscenity leads to hell, and the person tells a lie until he is recorded as a liar." (al-bukhari 5743 & muslim 2607).

on studying the personal biography of allah's messenger (pbuh) we find out that he was called the honest and the loyal. the makkan pagans never heard a single lie from him. when he was given the message, makkah's lords and masters antagonized him not because they didn't trust him but such act was out of mere insolence and haughtiness. in addition they feared loosing their prestige and their stature should be diminished among the arab tribes, some of their lords even admitted that openly.

due to his honesty and sincerity many people had joined islam. once a companion upon seeing allah's messenger (pbuh) for the first time said: "when i saw him first i knew that his face isn't that of a liar".

the honesty of the teacher leads the students to trust his sayings and lets him win their respect and lifts his stature up high. the honesty of the teacher is represented in the necessities of his responsibility, among which comes the truthful transfer of knowledge including the facts and info to the coming generations. if the teacher is not honest then the knowledge being transferred will be incomplete and missing. the result will be facts and info that are different from the truth that must be transmitted. if a student gets acquainted to accept such bad attitude from his teacher, he might adopt such behaviour and here lies a great danger to society.

an example of the effect of the teacher's lying on his students is stated by sheikh mohammed jameel zino who says :“a student asked a teacher in denunciation about another teacher who was smoking. the teacher, in defence of his colleague, replied that it was a physician's advice for him. when the student left the classroom he said: the teacher had lied to us. mohammed jameel commented that how nice it would have been if he was honest and clarified the mistake of his colleague. he should have clarified that smoking is forbidden as it is harmful for the body and the neighbour, damaging for the money. if he had done so he would have earned the trust & love of his students. he could have simply said that the other teacher is merely one of the people who can be right and can be wrong.

conclusion:

honesty is the savoir of the teacher in this world and in the hereafter.

lying to students is a hindrance to understanding and a cause to loss of trust.

the effect of lying exceeds the limits of the liar impacting the whole society.